This is how you know when we’re starting to get close to bubble season: Baylor (RPI: 58, KenPom: 55) knocks off TCU on the road, and we talk about it like it’s actually a big deal.

Because it actually kind of is.

I know that Baylor entered Wednesday having lost seven of their last eight games. I get that they’re currently sitting at 3-8 in the Big 12 after beating the Horned Frogs. I agree with anyone that wants to say that the Bears are one of the most disappointing teams in the country. But that doesn’t change the fact that a team with a top ten strength of schedule has wins over Colorado, Kentucky and Oklahoma State and that they all came away from Waco.

The Bears are still very much in the thick of the bubble race. They have good wins, they only have one bad loss, and they have five more games against top 40 teams. They need to start winning, obviously, but all is not yet lost.

It might have been if they lost to TCU.

But they didn’t.

Which means that Baylor’s bubble has survived another day.

THE REST OF WEDNESDAY’S BUBBLE ACTION

Indiana (RPI: 74, KenPom: 61) blew a big lead against Penn State. They’ve now beaten Michigan and Wisconsin at home, where they’ve also lost to Northwestern and now the Nittany Lions. With a non-conference resume that’s highlighted by a win over Washington (yuck), the Hoosiers are in some trouble.

George Washington (RPI: 27, KenPom: 37) lost VCU (RPI: 28, KenPom: 24), which inches the Colonials a bit closer to the bubble But a road loss at a league favorite isn’t exactly a bad thing. GW is still in a good position.

LSU (RPI: 59, KenPom: 68) lost to their fourth team outside the top 100 on Wednesday. Wins over Kentucky, Missouri and St. Joseph’s don’t make up for that. The Tigers might need to sneak an upset at Kentucky or at Florida.

Stanford (RPI: 42, KenPom: 34) actually has a better profile than I originally thought. The Cardinal have four top 50 wins, three of which came on the road. They’ve only lost two games to teams outside the top 50 — one of them on Wednesday against Washington — but both of those were on the road to teams with an RPI in the 80s. They can’t afford to drop a game to the likes of USC or Wazzu, but this team is in decent shape.

Richmond (RPI: 44, KenPom: 63) beat Duquesne, which means they’re still hanging tough despite the fact that they are missing two key players in Derrick Williams and Cedrick Lindsay.

Dayton (RPI: 57, KenPom: 56) has beaten Gonzaga, Cal and George Washington. They’ve lost to USC, Rhode Island and Illinois State. That’s the kind of schizophrenic nonsense these bubble resumes are made up of. At least they got their revenge on URI on Wednesday.

Cal (RPI: 50, KenPom: 45) didn’t lose to Washington State. That’s the good news. The bad? They got taken to overtime by the worst team in the conference, which means that the issues they’ve dealt with the last couple of weeks aren’t quite figured out. If it wasn’t for that Justin Cobbs jumper to beat Arizona, they’d be in some serious trouble.